Algeria convicts tour guide in kidnapping plot

Algeria's official news agency says a court in the capital has convicted a tour guide on charges he plotted to kidnap a group of European tourists and sell them to the North African al-Qaida affiliate.

The APS report says the 36-year-old man, Mohamed Afrokada, was sentenced to five years in prison.

The report cites court documents as saying that Afrokada and four other tour guides were behind a 2010 plot to kidnap tourists traveling in the desert Tamanrasset region, in southern Algeria and sell them to al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb. The documents said that Algerian security forces derailed the plot.